South Carolina Football: Report card from blowout win over Vanderbilt

B. The Gamecock defensive line played pretty well against Vanderbilt. The pass rush wasn’t there with consistency, but even without many sacks, there were stretches of play where quarterback Ken Seals was forced to leave the pocket in a hurry. The run defense was good early, had a bad stretch in the 3rd quarter, and then rebounded with a nice finish. Tonka Hemingway also knocked down three passes at the line of scrimmage, and Boogie Huntley and Jamaal Whyce jumped on loose fumbles. The biggest knock against the defensive line was a familiar theme: South Carolina had fewer tackles for loss than Vanderbilt, only stopping the ‘Dores behind the line three times in the whole game.. . South Carolina Gamecocks. DEFENSIVE LINE

South Carolina Gamecocks. LINEBACKERS . A. Overall, the Carolina linebackers played their best game of the season against Vanderbilt. Playing most of the game with three ‘backers on the field in a 3-3-5, Bam Martin-Scott and Debo Williams combined for 24 tackles. BMS set a new career-high with 13 (his previous high was 4) and added a sack and a pass breakup. Pup Howard forced a fumble (recovered by Boogie Huntley), and Jaron Willis almost picked up a sack on a nice rush..

. South Carolina Gamecocks. SECONDARY . B+. The USC secondary had a nice showing on Saturday. The defense held Vanderbilt to just over 100 yards passing, and a lot of that came from good coverage on the back end. The Commodores missed a few opportunities when they beat the Gamecock corners, so it wasn’t as if the Carolina coverage was perfect. However, it was pretty good, and the safeties stepped up in support against the run. A few missed tackles on the perimeter were ugly, and OD Fortune got beat for a touchdown, but the game might have been the defensive backfield’s best performance. A few dropped interceptions in the rain keep this grade from an A.

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